Regional notebook: Kinston's Tyndall impressed by Monarchs

Northside brothers, Kris (left) and Korey, take in the final seconds of Saturday's 69-58 loss to two-time defending state champion Kinston in the NCHSAA 2-A East Regional final at Crown Arena in Fayetteville.

John Sudbrink/The Daily News

By Chris Miller & Rick Scoppe/Daily News sports writers

Published: Sunday, March 9, 2014 at 09:30 AM.

FAYETTEVILLE – Kinston second-year basketball coach Perry Tyndall is certainly happy about the Vikings’ opportunity for a third consecutive state title – something they can achieve next Saturday in Raleigh.

But before he even thought about Kinston’s berth in the NCHSAA 2-A final in Raleigh, Tyndall couldn’t help but offer praise to Northside coach Tony Marshburn and the Monarchs, who lost 69-58 to the Vikings in the East Regional final.

“Northside is an unbelievable team with an unbelievable coach,” Tyndall said. “I really like Tony Marshburn, and Tony deserves to be playing too (next week) because he’s one of the best coaches around. Kudos to their team. We had a lot of respect for them coming into this. There are hard-nosed kids in his locker room. I know are hurting, but we are really, really excited.”

Tough day

Northside senior Davion Ayabarreno hasn’t seen many games like this – and not many defenders like the long-armed 6-foot-8 Brandon Ingram, who is one of the most highly recruited juniors in the nation and just the latest basketball stud to come out of Kinston High School.

The 6-4 Ayabarreno, who is Northside’s leading scorer at 16.8 points a game, was 0-for-4 from the floor – he attempted just one shot in the second half – and finished with three points on 3-of-4 from the foul line.

“He’s a pretty good defender,” Ayabarreno said. “He’s real long and he’s got good help behind him. Even if you get behind him there’s still three guys in the paint waiting for you. So it was kind of hard to get shots, get good looks at the rim.”

Moreover, Ayabarreno said Kinston’s man-to-man defense ranked among the best he’d seen.

“We’ve seen some good ones,” he said. “But that was probably one of the best ones we’ve seen.”

Not the ECI

Northside beat Kinston in the semifinals of the East Coast Invitational this past summer en route to becoming the first Onslow County team to win the annual basketball camp in Jacksonville. What, Ayabarreno was asked, was different this time, other than obviously what was at stake?

“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe their intensity level might have been higher than ours. That’s one thing you don’t want in a game like that. I feel like it’s the same as the ECI. But things happen.”

More consistency

Northside hit 53.6 percent in the second half, but that was nothing compared to Kinston, which hit an eye-popping 78.9 percent. The Vikings missed just four of 19 shots and committed just four turnovers in the second half.

“That’s remarkable. That’s the way to finish a game out,” Kinston coach Perry Tyndall said. “We’re really, really excited. I told our guys just a second ago to get back to the state championship is extremely tough and is something I think a lot of people take for granted.”

Northside coach Tony Marshurn just shook his head when Kinston’s second-half shooting percentage on the box score.

“You’re not going to beat many teams when they shoot that high a percentage,” he said. “I thought there were times today where we played really, really well – in spurts. But you’ve got to be consistently good against a team like Kinston.”

He said it

“We didn’t put a full game together like we should have. We played a great team. We didn’t come out like we should, not taking anything from them. We gave it our all the whole game. I just didn’t feel like we did our assignments like coach told us.”

Typically a transition team, Northside was unable to run against Kinston, thanks in large part to the Vikings committing just 11 turnovers.

“They didn’t turn it over and they controlled the boards,” Marshburn said. “Even when we tried to battle back, we didn’t get stops on the other end.”

One more loss

Kinston has been credited with a 24-4 overall record entering its game with Northside, but the Vikings were in fact 24-5.

The reason: Kinston lost to the University of North Carolina JV team, a defeat the NCHSAA recognizes, but a result that has not been registered by Maxpreps.com which features schedule and statistics for many high school teams in the state and nation.

Big 3

Cabrera hit a 3-pointer with four seconds left in the first half to cut Kinston’s lead down to 23-16.

The Monarchs were feeling good being down just seven.

“Obviously we weren’t playing good in the first half, but we felt good only down seven,” Cabrera said. “We had come back from deficits this season.”

Briefly – Kinston hit its first 20 free throws and finished 20 of 24 from the foul line. Northside was 11 of 16. … Kinston had a 38-20 advantage on points in the paint and a 19-6 edge on points off turnovers. But Northside had an 18-8 edge on second-chance points. … The teams tied 24-24 on the boards, although Northside had 14 offensive rebounds (5 by Kris Curry) to 8 by the Vikings.

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FAYETTEVILLE – Kinston second-year basketball coach Perry Tyndall is certainly happy about the Vikings’ opportunity for a third consecutive state title – something they can achieve next Saturday in Raleigh.

But before he even thought about Kinston’s berth in the NCHSAA 2-A final in Raleigh, Tyndall couldn’t help but offer praise to Northside coach Tony Marshburn and the Monarchs, who lost 69-58 to the Vikings in the East Regional final.

“Northside is an unbelievable team with an unbelievable coach,” Tyndall said. “I really like Tony Marshburn, and Tony deserves to be playing too (next week) because he’s one of the best coaches around. Kudos to their team. We had a lot of respect for them coming into this. There are hard-nosed kids in his locker room. I know are hurting, but we are really, really excited.”

Tough day

Northside senior Davion Ayabarreno hasn’t seen many games like this – and not many defenders like the long-armed 6-foot-8 Brandon Ingram, who is one of the most highly recruited juniors in the nation and just the latest basketball stud to come out of Kinston High School.

The 6-4 Ayabarreno, who is Northside’s leading scorer at 16.8 points a game, was 0-for-4 from the floor – he attempted just one shot in the second half – and finished with three points on 3-of-4 from the foul line.

“He’s a pretty good defender,” Ayabarreno said. “He’s real long and he’s got good help behind him. Even if you get behind him there’s still three guys in the paint waiting for you. So it was kind of hard to get shots, get good looks at the rim.”

Moreover, Ayabarreno said Kinston’s man-to-man defense ranked among the best he’d seen.

“We’ve seen some good ones,” he said. “But that was probably one of the best ones we’ve seen.”

Not the ECI

Northside beat Kinston in the semifinals of the East Coast Invitational this past summer en route to becoming the first Onslow County team to win the annual basketball camp in Jacksonville. What, Ayabarreno was asked, was different this time, other than obviously what was at stake?

“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe their intensity level might have been higher than ours. That’s one thing you don’t want in a game like that. I feel like it’s the same as the ECI. But things happen.”

More consistency

Northside hit 53.6 percent in the second half, but that was nothing compared to Kinston, which hit an eye-popping 78.9 percent. The Vikings missed just four of 19 shots and committed just four turnovers in the second half.

“That’s remarkable. That’s the way to finish a game out,” Kinston coach Perry Tyndall said. “We’re really, really excited. I told our guys just a second ago to get back to the state championship is extremely tough and is something I think a lot of people take for granted.”

Northside coach Tony Marshurn just shook his head when Kinston’s second-half shooting percentage on the box score.

“You’re not going to beat many teams when they shoot that high a percentage,” he said. “I thought there were times today where we played really, really well – in spurts. But you’ve got to be consistently good against a team like Kinston.”

He said it

“We didn’t put a full game together like we should have. We played a great team. We didn’t come out like we should, not taking anything from them. We gave it our all the whole game. I just didn’t feel like we did our assignments like coach told us.”

Typically a transition team, Northside was unable to run against Kinston, thanks in large part to the Vikings committing just 11 turnovers.

“They didn’t turn it over and they controlled the boards,” Marshburn said. “Even when we tried to battle back, we didn’t get stops on the other end.”

One more loss

Kinston has been credited with a 24-4 overall record entering its game with Northside, but the Vikings were in fact 24-5.

The reason: Kinston lost to the University of North Carolina JV team, a defeat the NCHSAA recognizes, but a result that has not been registered by Maxpreps.com which features schedule and statistics for many high school teams in the state and nation.

Big 3

Cabrera hit a 3-pointer with four seconds left in the first half to cut Kinston’s lead down to 23-16.

The Monarchs were feeling good being down just seven.

“Obviously we weren’t playing good in the first half, but we felt good only down seven,” Cabrera said. “We had come back from deficits this season.”

Briefly – Kinston hit its first 20 free throws and finished 20 of 24 from the foul line. Northside was 11 of 16. … Kinston had a 38-20 advantage on points in the paint and a 19-6 edge on points off turnovers. But Northside had an 18-8 edge on second-chance points. … The teams tied 24-24 on the boards, although Northside had 14 offensive rebounds (5 by Kris Curry) to 8 by the Vikings.